OpenAI's next reasoning model skips 'o2' to avoid O2 trademark clash

O2? Can't do! OpenAI has confirmed it will bypass the name "o2" for its next reasoning model to avoid trademark conflicts with British telecommunications giant O2. Instead, the company will jump straight to "o3" for its next release. The company is currently investing heavily in developing the o-series, its first "reasoning" models. To support this work, OpenAI is developing a new large language model called "Orion" that will generate synthetic training data, according to The Information. Microsoft's Phi-4 model recently demonstrated the effectiveness of incorporating synthetic data in AI training, at least in achieving impressive benchmark results. Interestingly, Sébastien Bubeck, who helped create the Phi series at Microsoft, has since joined OpenAI's team.